The present invention relates to an apparatus of determining animal""s emotions from vocal analysis of barking sounds, and more particularly, it relates to an apparatus of determining dog""s emotions by vocally analyzing barking sounds.
Above all animals, especially dogs have had very close relations to human beings for a long time, and they have played important roles in human societies, not only serving as work dogs like watchdogs and lifeguards but also as pets which live together with family members of human beings. Thus, it is not an exaggeration to say that human beings have had a dream for a long time to communicate with dogs, and actually various attempts have been done to realize the dream. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-3479 titled xe2x80x9cInterpretation Method for Reading Animal""s Mind and Interpretation Device for the Samexe2x80x9d discloses a method of interpreting animal""s mind and a device for the same where voice made by animals such as pets and livestock is received and converted into audio signals while actions of the animals are shot into moving pictures and converted into video signals, and then, the audio and video signals are compared with reference data on voices and motions that have been ethologically analyzed. Relying on this technology, voices and actions of a dog can be interpreted to read its mind, but this prior art fails to provide any practical data of dog""s voices and actions that seem to be a kind of expression of its emotions.
There has not been any means to reason objectively how a dog feels on the basis of vocal analysis in which, upon the definite understanding of the relation between dog""s emotions and its barking sounds, reference voice patterns are set corresponding to such emotions, and actual voice of any specific dog is compared to the reference voice patterns. More accurately speaking, there have been no objective supports in effect to identify a specific dog""s emotion from its voice. The present invention is made to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a device of receiving actual voice of a dog to determine dog""s emotions with objective supports by first creating reference voice patterns corresponding to various emotions of a dog and then matching the reference patterns with actual voice patterns of a dog.
The Invention as defined in Claim 1 comprises means for converting a dog""s voice into electrical audio signals, means for extracting characteristics in a time to frequency component relation map of the audio signals as an input voice pattern, means for storing reference voice patterns that represent various dog""s emotions expressed by its voice in a form of the time to frequency component relation map, means for comparing the input voice pattern with the reference voice patterns, and means for determining dog""s feeling by choosing the pattern most closely matched to the input voice pattern; characterized in that the reference voice patterns include a reference voice pattern expressing loneliness that is made up of significant frequency components around 5000 Hz without frequency components of 3000 Hz or below but lacks harmonics and lasts for 0.2 to 0.3 second, a reference voice pattern expressing frustration that is made up of a sub-pattern for 0.3 to 1 second of fundamental tones ranging from 160 to 240 Hz with harmonics up to 1500 Hz and a subsequent sub-pattern of 250 to 8000 Hz without definite fundamental tones and harmonics but conspicuous for frequency components around 1000 Hz, a reference voice pattern expressing aggressiveness that is made up of a sub-pattern ranging from 250 to 8000 Hz without definite fundamental tones and harmonics and conspicuous for frequency components around 1000 Hz and a subsequent sub-pattern for 0.8 to 1.5 second of fundamental tones ranging from 240 to 360 Hz with harmonics definite up to 1500 Hz and reaching 8000 Hz, a reference voice pattern expressing assertiveness that is made up of frequency components ranging from 250 to 8000 Hz without definite fundamental tones and harmonics and conspicuous for frequency components around 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz and 5000 Hz, respectively, a reference voice pattern expressing happiness including a sub-pattern of frequency components ranging from 250 to 8000 Hz without definite fundamental tones and harmonics and with conspicuous frequency components around 1000 Hz and a subsequent sub-pattern of fundamental tones ranging from 200 to 300 Hz with harmonics up to 1500 Hz, and a reference voice pattern expressing wistfulness that is made up of fundamental tones ranging from 250 to 500 Hz with harmonics up to 8000 Hz and with frequency of the fundamental tones being varied.
The invention as defined in Claim 2 comprises steps of converting a dog""s voice into electrical audio signals, extracting characteristics in a time to frequency component relation map of the audio signals as an input voice pattern, storing reference voice patterns that represent various dog""s emotions expressed by its voice in a form of the time to frequency component relation map, comparing the input voice pattern with the reference voice patterns, and determining how the dog feels from the most closely matched pattern to the input voice pattern; characterized in that the reference voice patterns include a reference voice pattern expressing loneliness that is made up of significant frequency components around 5000 Hz without frequency components of 3000 Hz or below but lacks harmonics and lasts for 0.2 to 0.3 second, a reference voice pattern expressing frustration that is made up of a sub-pattern for 0.3 to 1 second of fundamental tones ranging from 160 to 240 Hz with harmonics up to 1500 Hz and a subsequent sub-pattern of 250 to 8000 Hz without definite fundamental tones and harmonics but conspicuous for frequency components around 1000 Hz, a reference voice pattern expressing aggressiveness that is made up of a sub-pattern ranging from 250 to 8000 Hz without definite fundamental tones and harmonics and conspicuous for frequency components around 1000 Hz and a subsequent sub-pattern for 0.8 to 1.5 second of fundamental tones ranging from 240 to 360 Hz with harmonics definite up to 1500 Hz and reaching 8000 Hz, a reference voice pattern expressing assertiveness that is made up of frequency components ranging from 250 to 8000 Hz without definite fundamental tones and harmonics and conspicuous for frequency components around 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz and 5000 Hz, respectively, a reference voice pattern expressing happiness including a sub-pattern of frequency components ranging from 250 to 8000 Hz without definite fundamental tones and harmonics and with conspicuous frequency components around 1000 Hz and a subsequent sub-pattern of fundamental tones ranging from 200 to 300 Hz with harmonics up to 1500 Hz, and a reference voice pattern expressing wistfulness that is made up of fundamental tones ranging 250 to 500 Hz with harmonics up to 8000 Hz and with frequency of the fundamental tones being varied.